Written in September 2011 when I still believed the country could be saved. My passion has dimmed considerably over the last five years. Libertarianism does not work during a Fourth Turning. Maybe after the death and destruction wrought by those in control, people will come to their senses. And maybe not.
“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.” – Ernest Hemingway
“Though the Federal Reserve policy harms the average American, it benefits those in a position to take advantage of the cycles in monetary policy. The main beneficiaries are those who receive access to artificially inflated money and/or credit before the inflationary effects of the policy impact the entire economy. Federal Reserve policies also benefit big spending politicians who use the inflated currency created by the Fed to hide the true costs of the welfare-warfare state.” – Ron Paul
Ernest Hemingway and Ron Paul never met. Ron Paul was completing medical school in 1961 when Hemingway committed suicide at his home in Idaho. I think they would have hit it off. I stumbled across the quote from Hemingway above. Those words could have come directly out of the mouth of Ron Paul. Both men spent their whole lives seeking the truth and presenting their ideas in a blunt straightforward manner. Hemingway is one of the most renowned writers in American history, with classics such as A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Sun Also Rises to his credit.
He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. He constructed a new literary style characterized by lean, hard, sparse dialogue. He influenced literature and young authors for decades. As a teenager I was immediately drawn to his gritty realistic novels. There was no nonsense to his novels. They always involved man’s struggle against death and hardship. Most of his best work was done in the 1920s and 1930s, but he produced one of his finest works in 1951 towards the end of his life. Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for his story about an epic battle between an old man and a great marlin.
Ernest Hemingway was bigger than life. Hemingway’s real life reads like a Stephen Spielberg Indiana Jones movie. He was an ambulance driver in World War I, where he was seriously wounded. He had four wives. He lived in Paris during the 1920s associating with other famous “Lost Generation” writers. He was a correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, while also joining in the fighting. He survived two plane crashes and multiple car accidents. He battled alcoholism and mental illness, eventually taking his own life, just as his father, brother and sister had done before him. His novels reflected the pain, struggle and inevitability of death that permeated his own life.
The Old Man and the Sea is a novel about Santiago, an old fisherman whose life is approaching its conclusion, and his final heroic struggle against a great marlin and the evil sharks that ultimately devour his prize. The mark of a great writer is the ability to tell a story that means many things to many people. Hemingway described his aim in writing this novel:
“No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in. … I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things.”
His novels always had a gritty reality to them. This particular novel is rich with symbolism and life lessons that are timeless and relevant today. The plot of the story is quite basic, but the character analysis reveals much deeper insights. For eighty-four days, Santiago, an aged Cuban fisherman, has set out to sea and returned empty-handed. So strikingly unlucky is he that the parents of his young, devoted apprentice and friend, Manolin, have forced the boy to leave the old man in order to fish in a more prosperous boat. On the eighty-fifth day he decides to sail far into the Gulf Stream past where most fishermen would dare venture alone. A big fish, which he knows is a marlin, takes the bait that Santiago has placed one hundred fathoms deep in the waters. The old man expertly hooks the fish, but he cannot pull it in. Instead, the fish begins to pull the boat.
Unable to tie the line fast to the boat for fear the fish would snap a taut line, the old man bears the strain of the line with his shoulders, back, and hands, ready to give slack should the marlin make a run. The great fish pulls the boat for two straight days. The entire time, Santiago endures constant pain from the fishing line. Whenever the fish lunges, leaps, or makes a dash for freedom, the cord cuts Santiago badly. Although wounded and weary, the old man feels a deep empathy and admiration for the marlin, his brother in suffering, strength, and resolve. On the third day, the fish tires and Santiago is able to kill him with his harpoon. He lashes it to the side of the boat and begins the long journey home.
As Santiago navigates toward his destination, the marlin’s blood leaves a trail in the water and attracts sharks. The first to attack is a great mako shark, which Santiago manages to slay with the harpoon. In the struggle, the old man loses the harpoon, which leaves him vulnerable to more shark attacks. The vicious predator sharks continuously attack Santiago’s trophy and despite killing several of the sharks, his battle became ultimately hopeless. He fights a gallant fight, revealing man’s finest qualities of bravery, confidence, courage, patience, optimism, and intelligence during the struggle.
The scavengers devour the marlin’s precious meat, leaving only skeleton, head, and tail. Santiago chastises himself for going “out too far,” and for sacrificing his great and worthy opponent. He arrives home before daybreak, stumbles back to his shack, and sleeps very deeply. The next morning, a crowd of amazed fishermen gathers around the skeletal carcass of the fish, which is still lashed to the boat. Manolin, who had been worried sick over the old man’s absence, is moved to tears when he finds Santiago safe in his bed. The boy fetches the old man some coffee and the daily papers with the baseball scores, and watches him sleep. When the old man awakens, the two agree to fish as partners once more. The old man returns to sleep and dreams his usual dream of lions at play on the beaches of Africa.
Sadness, resignation and the inevitability of death permeate the pages of this brilliant novel. But it is grace under pressure in the face of overwhelming odds that is the true message Hemingway leaves with the reader. There is no avoiding death, but the critical test of mankind is how you live your life and how you endure the suffering and pain that are inflicted upon you.
The Honor in Struggle, Defeat & Death
“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway
Life is a journey. At the end of every worldly journey, death awaits. That is a certainty. The ending will be the same for everyone who walks this earth. What matters is the course chosen on the voyage through life. The vast sea represents life’s journey, with its ebbs, flows, and storms that must be navigated. In Hemingway’s portrait of the world, death is inevitable, but the finest men will nonetheless refuse to give in to its power. In both the sea and in life, there are a number of possibilities that lie hidden from the common eye; some are gifts to be treasured and some are problems to be defeated.
Neither will be found unless man embarks upon the journey. If man is lucky enough to discover a treasure he must fight until death to retain it; if man is unlucky enough to discover an evil lurking underneath the surface of the sea, he must fight it bravely and nobly until the end. In either case, it is the struggle that is all- important, and a man obtains the status of hero if he battles the sea (life) with grace under pressure. The only way to obtain the status of hero is to set sail on the uncertain sea of life.
Ron Paul, trained as a doctor in the early 1960s, served his country as an Air Force flight surgeon from 1963 through 1968 during the Vietnam War. He’s been married for 54 years and has raised five children. He has delivered 4,000 babies during his medical career, while routinely providing free care to poor patients and refusing to accept Medicare or Medicaid payments. He has also refused to accept a government pension, seeing it as immoral and hypocritical. He could have spent his life running his medical practice, playing by government mandated rules, and becoming a multi-millionaire. Instead he chose to embark on an uncertain journey into the sea of Washington politics.
He decided to begin his struggle against tyranny, big government and currency debasement by the Federal Reserve on August 15, 1971. While still a medical resident during the 1960s, Paul was influenced by Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, which led him to read many publications by Ludwig von Mises. He became acquainted with economists Hans Sennholz and Murray Rothbard, and credits them with his interest in the study of economics. He came to believe what the Austrian school economists wrote was confirmed when President Richard Nixon “closed the gold window” by implementing the U.S. dollar’s complete departure from the gold standard. On that day, the young physician decided to enter the rough treacherous seas of politics, saying later, “After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value.”
Winning and losing are not what is important in life, as we all will lose out to death in the end. It is the honor gained during the struggle that matters. It’s the legacy we leave for future generations. Did we fight the good fight, or did we sit idly by while life passed by? Did your life mean something to someone? You can stay safely on the shore or you can jump into your skiff and sail into the deep water and conquer your marlin.
Both Santiago and the marlin display qualities of pride, honor, and courage, and both are subject to the same eternal law: they must kill or be killed. As Santiago reflects when he observes the weary warbler fly toward shore, where it will inescapably meet the hawk, the world is filled with marauders, and no living thing can escape the unavoidable struggle that will lead to its demise. Man and fish will struggle to the death, just as ravenous sharks will ravage an old man’s prize catch.
Ron Paul chose to join the struggle in 1976 when he was elected a Congressman from Texas for the first time. His years in Washington have been a never ending struggle against corruption, the military industrial complex, and the Federal Reserve currency manipulators. He has been a lone fisherman fighting for truth and liberty for over three decades. We are all pulled by our own individual marlins.
Ron Paul has endured scorn and derision, much like Santiago endured from the other fishermen after going eighty four days without a catch. He has always stayed focused on the important issues that have led to the relentless decline of the American Empire: liberty versus security, freedom versus government control, and sound money versus persistent Federal Reserve created inflation. He has fought forces within his own party and in the opposition party. Despite fighting this battle alone for decades and being bloodied and battered, he has never given up the fight.
Hemingway’s novel suggests that it is possible to transcend natural law. The very inescapability of destruction creates the terms that allow an admirable man to rise above it. It is specifically through the endeavor to combat the inevitable that a man can prove himself. Indeed, a man can prove this resolve over and over through the worthiness of the adversary he chooses to fight. Santiago, though devastated at the end of the novel, is never defeated. Instead, he emerges as a dignified conqueror. Santiago’s struggle does not enable him to change man’s position in the world. Rather, it enables him to meet his most noble destiny.
After toiling fruitlessly for decades in the corrupt halls of Congress, surrounded by sharks, scorned by the corporate mainstream media pundits, and ignored by a public that has chosen security and delusions of credit based wealth over freedom and personal responsibility, Ron Paul chose to take on his greatest challenge – seeking the Presidency of the United States. The odds were overwhelmingly against him in 2008 and they are again in 2012.
He is 76 years old and has every right to be sitting on his porch in Lake Jackson, Texas enjoying the twilight years of his life. He is driven by his sense of duty to future generations of our once great country. Even though deep in his heart he knows this struggle will end in defeat, he endures. He will continue to spread his message of liberty, freedom, sound money and an optimism that has attracted millions of young people to his worldview. Like Santiago, Ron Paul is determined to show “what a man can do and what a man endures.”
Pride as the Source of Greatness & Determination
“His choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either one of us.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
“The original American patriots were those individuals brave enough to resist with force the oppressive power of King George. I accept the definition of patriotism as that effort to resist oppressive state power. The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility and out of self-interest for himself, his family, and the future of his country” – Ron Paul
The reason Santiago ventured into the deep waters of the Gulf, far past where a lesser fisherman would dare endeavor, was pride. It wasn’t the false pride of vanity, but the pride described by St. Augustine as “the love of one’s own excellence”. It was a virtuous pride revealing his greatness of soul and faith in his own abilities. Santiago’s pride ended up being his tragic flaw. He went out beyond the boundaries of a normal fisherman. In the end he was ruined, along with his prize, by the malevolent sharks. His run of bad luck was an affront to his pride and drove him to go beyond his limits.
Hemingway does not denounce Santiago for being full of pride. On the contrary, Santiago stands as testimony that pride inspires men to greatness. Because the old man concedes that he killed the mighty marlin largely out of pride, and because his capture of the marlin leads in turn to his heroic transcendence of defeat, pride becomes the source of Santiago’s greatest strength. Without a fierce sense of pride, that battle would never have been fought, or would have been forsaken before the end.
Ron Paul has a clear vision of the America our forefathers imagined. It is a vision of a people free from government control of every aspect of their lives. It’s a vision where the people keep what they earn and don’t pay half to government to be redistributed based upon a politician’s re-election aspirations. It’s a vision where the people are free to make their own choices and free to succeed or fail based on their own merits. It’s a vision where a truly free market exists and private bankers do not control and manipulate the currency.
It’s a vision that calls for a strong national defense, not being the policeman to the world. It’s a vision where we follow the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law. It’s a vision where a limited government ensures the liberties and freedoms of the population. It’s a vision that calls for balanced budgets, sound money, and citizens and corporations accepting the consequences of their actions. If Santiago was a fisherman in the U.S. today, he would be required to have a license to fish, a permit for his boat, pay taxes on his catch, and probably have to release the marlin because it was endangered. Some government thug would have met Santiago at the dock and written him a ticket for being at sea too long and illegal feeding of sharks.
Is Ron Paul running for President because he desires power, control and glory? Anyone who has ever seen Ron Paul or heard him speak knows he is decent man desperately trying to convey his message:
“The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.”
It is Ron Paul’s pride and unswerving belief in his message of freedom that inspires him to forge ahead in this grueling voyage destined to fail in the eyes of the media and political sharks that circle him, attacking at every opportunity. What these superficial toadies will never understand is that winning isn’t what is important to Ron Paul. It’s the message and the truth that matters. His pride enables him to endure. It is endurance that matters most in Hemingway’s conception of the world—a world in which death and destruction, as part of the natural order of things, are unavoidable. Hemingway seems to believe there are only two options: defeat or endurance until destruction; Santiago and Ron Paul have chosen the latter. Their stoic determination is mythic, nearly Christ-like in proportion.
Grace Under Pressure
“Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.” – Ernest Hemingway
“Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.” – Ron Paul
Hemingway unquestionably likens Santiago to Christ throughout the novel. Like Christ, he is filled with goodness, patience, and humility. The forces of evil, however, are arrayed against Santiago, as seen when he fends off the sharks. Similarly, Christ had to clash with the wicked Pharisees in Jerusalem. Both men’s struggles end with shame and humiliation.
Christ is betrayed, beaten, forced to carry his own cross, and is crucified, with arms outstretched and bleeding hands nailed to the cross. Santiago is betrayed by the sharks and his spirit crushed. Arriving home a disconsolate man, he struggles up the hill with his mast across his back, much like Christ bearing the cross up to Calvary. When he finally lies down in his bed, his arms are stretched straight out with palms up, and his hands are bleeding. It is an obvious reflection of Christ on the cross.
Having read hundreds of articles by Ron Paul and watched an equal number of interviews he has given over the last five years, his goodness, patience and humility shine through in every instance, along with his knowledge, diligence and charitable nature. The ideologues on the left wing and the right wing that dominate the dialogue in the mainstream media despise Dr. Paul and his message. They attempt to denigrate and humiliate him through their propaganda machines by twisting his words and misrepresenting his positions.
They fear his message of individual responsibility and peaceful interaction with all nations. Those in power want to control our lives and force American values upon other nations. If Dr. Paul’s ideas were to take root with the American people, the era of corporate fascist big government would be over. The welfare – warfare state would begin to wither away. Dr. Paul, much like Santiago and Christ, never lashes out at the forces of evil confronting him along his journey. He is stoic and resolute as he spreads his message of truth, liberty and hope.
Santiago’s favorite baseball player was Joe DiMaggio. The Yankee Clipper was the greatest ballplayer of his era. His 56 game hitting streak has never been surpassed. He led his team to nine World Series victories in his thirteen seasons. He played much of his career with painful bone spurs in his heel. His father was a fisherman, as were generations before him. DiMaggio inspired Santiago with his leadership qualities and the determination to win, in spite of handicaps. The image of the baseball hero playing in pain gave Santiago renewed vigor and stamina to bear his own pain. Joe DiMaggio was later used by Simon & Garfunkel as a symbol of an America longing for its past glory:
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio,
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson.
Jolting Joe has left and gone away,
Hey hey hey.
– Mrs. Robinson
Joe DiMaggio was a symbol of excellence, perseverance, determination and leadership. He overcame adversity and triumphed despite his constant pain. Ron Paul has persevered through decades of obscurity and adversity. But, now his time has come. He is the intellectual godfather of the Tea Party movement. The neo-conservative element of the Republican Party has attempted to hijack the true Tea Party message of limited government, individual liberty, non-interventionism in foreign lands, freedom to live our lives without a smothering government bureaucracy dictating mandates at every turn, and a sound currency not controlled by a private banking cabal.
As our country spirals downward due to the complete hijacking of our political system by the moneyed interests on Wall Street and the military industrial complex, leading us into never ending wars, Ron Paul’s message is finally striking a chord, especially among the young people who will be saddled with the crushing debt created by those in power. Despite the blatant lies and attempts to discredit and ignore him, Ron Paul charges forward with perseverance and courage unheard of in a man his age. He doesn’t do it for the glory, but for the unborn future generations who have no voice in their future.
Santiago dreams of lions throughout the novel first as cubs playing on the beach and ultimately as noble warriors, signifying great strength and a sense of renewal and vitality. They inspire confidence and optimism about the future. The old will give way to the young. The aged majestic warrior, through his example of bravery, courage and persistence, leaves the young warriors with a shining example of living life to its utmost and sacrificing personal glory for the good of the many. Ron Paul may not win the Presidency, but the example he has set for the young people of this country has laid the groundwork for a better tomorrow. His message of liberty, freedom and responsibility will resonate far after he has left this earth.
All of the symbols employed by Hemingway add to premise that life is an endless struggle with illusory rewards. In order to achieve nobility in life, a person must exhibit bravery, poise, courage, patience, optimism, and intelligence during the struggle. Then, even if the prize is lost, the person has won the battle, proving himself capable of retaining grace under pressure, the ultimate test of mankind. Ron Paul’s life is a shining example of grace under pressure.
He has single handedly battled his great fish (Big Government, Big Finance, Big Military) for four decades with no helpers and many detractors. His journey is nearing its end. But it isn’t how it ends that matters. The journey is what separates the noble lion (Ron Paul) from the hyenas (corrupt politicians) and jackals (media). Ron’s message will not die. His son will carry the torch. The young people who have been inspired by his words and example will carry the torch. All of our lives will end the same way. The lesson to be learned from Ron Paul is how we should live our lives.
The ideologically myopic pundits that pass for the intelligentsia in the mainstream media scornfully declare that Ron Paul has no chance of winning, when all critical thinking citizens recognize that he has already won. They can destroy him, but he will not be defeated.
“Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
“Ideas are very important to the shaping of society. In fact, they are more powerful than bombings or armies or guns. And this is because ideas are capable of spreading without limit. They are behind all the choices we make. They can transform the world in a way that governments and armies cannot. Fighting for liberty with ideas makes more sense to me than fighting with guns or politics or political power. With ideas, we can make real change that lasts.” – Ron Paul
Eloquent piece but as another gifted writer noted:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
We don’t need leaders to beat back the forces of tyranny if we would just live under the Constitution our founders bequethed to us. Its a very complete document on how to govern a free society and keep at bay those who would ‘do good’ or ‘evil’. Alas, humans are easy prey to the siren song of greed and envy and elect buffoons, predators and scoundrels who lead the public into ruin.
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What an impressive piece to start my week.
Thank you.
This struck me, “…citizens and corporations accepting the consequences of their actions..”
We seem a long, long, way from that happening. Most don’t even want it to happen.
From our public schools, to our boardrooms, “not my fault, not my job” has become the motto.
Parents are flooding doctor’s offices to get their children labeled, then declared eligible for government benefits and the bonus of turning parenting skills into only having to drug the little bastards until they go to bed.
We seem to have gone from a country that believed hard work, personal investment and dedication equated to a better standard a living and life to a country that believes you get ahead by either winning the lottery, signing up for disability or suing our own jobs out of the country because we are too stupid to inherently realize coffee and tea needs to be brewed at “dangerous” temperatures. Dr. Paul was from a generation that NEVER would have sued a business, or neighbor, for their own stupidity, he knew he needed to work his ass off for to advance his career, he knew that paying your obligations and being a man of your word was the grease that kept society together. I doubt we have ever been further from that world than we are now.
In asking our government to hold and protect and make everything “fair”, we have managed to create a society that 100% caters to victims, so we victimize ourselves, our children and everyone else by doing half a job, accepting filth (have your really looked at fast food joints recently? sometime between my stint in one in the 80s and today, filth has become acceptable) and firmly believing that perception is more important than reality.
Again I am awed by your prose and your ability to make connections.
Ummm … , what newsjunkie said !
“That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.”
Ron Paul
Parents are flooding doctor’s offices to get their children labeled, then declared eligible for government benefits and the bonus of turning parenting skills into only having to drug the little bastards until they go to bed. – TeresaE
This^^^^^makes me sick to my stomach.
filth has become acceptable) – TeresaE
It seems so. I try very hard to avoid fast-food places and public restrooms. Alas, yesterday I found myself in both. I hope it’s a very long time before it happens again. It’s hard to enjoy a meal when you’re wondering as you eat if you will end up sick from the food or exposure to the filth. Blecchh!!
Nice work there Jim. Maybe your best yet.
Government is forced dependence. The longer a system is in place the harder it becomes to separate from the new normal. People today cannot envision a society without social security, medicare, welfare, the department of education, health and human services and on and on. These are necessary programs on which people depend. The fact that the bulk of the federal bureaucracy is a 20th century creation is glossed over and ignored. The country thrived prior to the implementation of these programs. The same can also be said for our enormous and bloated military. Does providing for our common defense mean we must have troops stationed around the world? What good does a fighting force serve when there is no war to fight other than stand in provocation and encourage a conflict? The global corporations and international banks are the ultimate puppet masters controlling the elected representatives in D.C.
The welfare and entitlement programs have succeeded in cowing the people of Amerika into acceptance that there is no alternative to government provision. The majority opinion is that these programs are necessary and are in need of an overhaul but should by no means be discontinued. The media conglomerates have also for decades drilled into the minds of Amerikans that there is a threat behind every rock and tree and that only a military with a global reach and presence can keep the people safe. The older generations lived under the assumed threat of the “evil empire” which was largely a creation of the western banking interests. Our supposed enemy wanted to nuke us back to the stone age yet we provided food and grain to them without which they could not have survived. Like a rigged boxing match where one fighter carries the other for a few rounds so the fixer can win his bet, so too has Amerika endeavored as such with its “enemies.” We now face the “war on terrrorism” which by its very nature implies a war with no end against an enemy who could be anyone and anywhere. It is fear that compels dependence and the powers that be will stoke that fear to higher heights to tighten their grip on the populace.
Make no mistake, the drive of government from here on out will be to further dependence on the system for the greater benefit of the international banks and corporations. A policy of individualism, independence and liberty is dangerous from the globalists’ perspective and these are the ideas they wish to see destroyed. History has proven that the terrible and destructive lengths to which these people will go to further their power and control know no bounds. The situation will get much worse before it gets better.
Hemingway’s old man and Ron Paul makes for an apt comparison. People can mock them, but they will always have their dignity and honor.
Paul will likely fail in his attempt for the presidency, but no one can say that he didn’t carry himself as a gentleman and statesman, uttering truths that need to be told. It is a sad commentary on the state of American politics that more people don’t recognize his qualities.
“Hemingway seems to believe there are only two options: defeat or endurance until destruction; Santiago and Ron Paul have chosen the latter.”
There is a third option that you should all consider when reading this great story, but that would mean rewriting the last part of the story. Santiago defeats all of the sharks as Ron Paul has done in the past and is still doing currently. He enters the harbor with his prize marlin unscathed, and Santiago is victorious against the forces of evil.
The third option is Ron Paul wins the presidency. Victory is also an option. If Ron Paul didn’t believe that he can win, he would not be running, and I would not be wasting my time supporting someone who conveyed a defeatist message. With the record that Ron Paul has, he can win, but he needs help the same way that Santiago needed help. Santiago tried to catch the marlin and bring it home single-handedly. Ron Paul is not alone. Believe it, and start making it happen.
Admin, you’ve been eloquent and polemical in the past, but you wax poetic here. This is as good as anything you’ve done, the more so for the inner quality of reflectiveness, and for your insights into the only major champion of liberty in national politics today. Thank you.
P.S. You bring to mind Kipling’s “If,” one of my favorite poems, which treats of the same subject – manhood and courage in the face of defeat, disaster and despair.
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EH and RP have one other thing in common.
One of my daughters is reading ‘On Wings of eagles,” the Ken Follett book about Ross Perot and the Iran hostage rescue of his EDS employees that he engineered. She’s 14 and does not remember him. I let her know about his campaigns in ’92 and ’96 and how he was the last major third-party challenger to the establishment.
Remember “That giant sucking sound” and his warnings on the budget? We could use him today. I wonder how he views Ron Paul’s candidacy?
I wish the election for POTUS was today, I am so ready for this b.s. to end. Ron Paul wins the CA. straw poll last week, Bachmann is already fading, Perry’s luster will soon wear off. It’s between Paul and Romney so let’s just do it now. BTW, who would accept a Romney/Paul or Paul/Romney ticket?
Great article Jim!
As I read this, I couldn’t help but think of my favorite TR quote.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
A man who has been around as long as Dr. Paul certainly understands that while the end may not be what he most wants, his life’s struggle undoubtedly inspires those around him to take a closer look at what he has to say.
Matthew 13:57 reads, “And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.”
At this point in time, the majority of the American people do not understand RP enough to give him the credit he deserves for his thoughts and tireless efforts in the arena. To them, he is without honor. I hope over the next few years this will change.
“The ending will be the same for everyone who walks this earth. ”
Maybe it was this sense of the inevitable futility of life that led Hemingway to commit suicide, that in the end there is nothing. Maybe a vast swath of America also has this nihilistic belief. IF that’s true then it is logical that these Americans would use any means available to have a better life on this earth with their damn-my-neighbor, it’s-all-about-me attitude.
Solzhenitsyn rhetorically asked and then answered : “Why have men become like animals? Because they have forgotten God.”
Maybe America is headed for the “Animal Farm.”
I want to know why Hemmingway cracked…
(official video so get passed the ad…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-s5pP2aTiY&ob=av2e
a febrile shocking violent smack
the children are hoping for a heart attack,
tonight the windows are watching,
the streets all conspire,
and the lamppost can’t stop crying,
if I could fly high above the world,
would I see a bunch of living dots spell the world stupidity?,
or would I see hungry lover homicides,
loving brother suicides,
and olly olly oxenfrees,
who pickaside and hide
the world is scratching at my door,
my morning papers got the scores,
the human interest stories, and the obituary
cockroach naps and rattling traps,
how many devils can you fit upon a match head?,
caringosity killed the Kerouac cat,
sometimes truth is stranger than fiction
in my alley around the corner,
there’s a wino with feathered shoulders,
and a spirit giving head for crack and he’ll never want it back,
there’s a little kid and his family eating crackers like thanksgiving
and a pack of wild desperados scornful of living
the worlds is scratching at my door….
cradle for a cat, Wolfe looks back,
how many angels can you fit upon a match?
I want to know why Hemingway cracked,
sometimes truth is stranger than fiction
life is the crummiest book I ever read,
there isn’t a hook, just a lot of cheap shots,
pictures to shock and characters an amateur would never dream up
-Bad Religion
“Stranger Than Fiction”
Here is some insight into his suicide.
Hemingway suffered from physical problems as well: his health declined and his eyesight was failing. In November he was admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where he may have believed he was to be treated for hypertension.Meyers writes that “an aura of secrecy surrounds Hemingway’s treatment at the Mayo”, but confirms that in December 1960 he received electroconvulsive therapy as many as 15 times, then in January 1961 he was “released in ruins”.
Three months later, back in Ketchum, Mary found Hemingway holding a shotgun one morning. She called Dr. Saviers, who sedated him and had him admitted to the Sun Valley Hospital; from there he was returned to the Mayo for more shock treatments. While Hemingway consented to the additional treatments, he was bitter about their apparent effect on his memory and writing. As he put it,
“What these shock doctors don’t know is about writers…and what they do to them…What is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient.”
He was released in late June and arrived home in Ketchum on June 30. Two days later, in the early morning hours of July 2, 1961, Hemingway “quite deliberately” shot himself with his favorite shotgun. He unlocked the gun cabinet, went to the front entrance of their Ketchum home, and “pushed two shells into the twelve-gauge Boss shotgun, put the end of the barrel into his mouth, pulled the trigger and blew out his brains.”
During his final years, Hemingway’s behavior was similar to his father’s before he himself committed suicide; his father may have had the genetic disease hemochromatosis, in which the inability to metabolize iron culminates in mental and physical deterioration. Medical records made available in 1991 confirm that Hemingway’s hemochromatosis had been diagnosed in early 1961. His sister Ursula and his brother Leicester also committed suicide. Added to Hemingway’s physical ailments was the additional problem that he had been a heavy drinker for most of his life.
Sweet. Top to bottom, this article is as good as you’ve ever written, Jim.
And you’ve managed to slip in a line or two, or ten, of biting criticism of the federal government. Best one: “Some government thug would have met Santiago at the dock and written him a ticket for being at sea too long and illegal feeding of sharks.”
SSS
I liked that line too. I wasn’t sure how to work it into the story, but I think it worked.
I’m going to try and create a 900 or so word version of this article and ask all the TBPers to send it to their local newspapers as an Op-Ed. Most papers won’t print an Op-Ed over 900 words.
Great Article. Broad publication of this may bring an epiphany. Permission to reprint, crediting the author?
Baseball 13
Spread the message as far and as wide as possible.
Really, really, really enjoyed the read. Life is spiritual. I happen to be a Christian and believe what I believe with strong convictions. But “Free Will” puts a twist on life that gives these words there real meaning; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. You see 52 of the 56 signers of the Declaration were confessing Christians and ALL 56 were “Spiritual” men. These men decided that there was something greater in life worth living for and in many, many cases worth dying for.
A truly free man is free to choose to both good and evil. Without freewill there cannot be love or charity. A man must get up every day look in mirror and choose to do the right thing in spite of who he is. He gets up looks at himself realizes his shortcomings and faults and says in spite of it I will choose today to do good. In the good ole King James Bible the word used for love is charity. Will I choose today to show charity (love)? I will no longer use the word love because the word charity is much deeper and has lost its meaning today.
Charity is about personal responsibility. Charity is a spiritual word. Charity demands a response from the individual, not the government. It demands that the individual of his own Free Will choose to do the right thing. I was driving to a college football game with my son in my 2011 gas guzzler to go sit in my seats and watch 4 hours of football and be entertained. On the way there was a man making his way across the street with no legs. His pants were duct-taped at the bottom and he used two blocks with handles to make his way. I looked at him at first in pity, but with no sense of responsibility. You see it is the governments responsibility to take care of him (that was my thought). I pay taxes and they pay to take care of him it is not my responsibility.
I then asked my son what he thought and he felt no responsibility either. That prompted me to ask then what is charity? Why don’t I feel any responsibility to help (& you)? And what is charity for this man? Is charity buying him food? Is charity finding out what skill he has or can learn and teaching him how to feed himself? Is charity providing employment for him? Then our discussion went to all the government rules and regulations that might possibly get in the way of helping this man and that it probably wouldn’t be worth it, so we leave charity to the government. But the government is incapable of providing charity. Charity in its purist form can only come from the individual. Charity is not about money charity is selfless, charity does not seek its own, charity puts other before itself, charity is patient, kind, gentle……. These are characteristics that only individuals (Free Men) can personify. The government is completely incapable of Charity.
The men who signed the declaration were charitable men. They gave up there lives so we could have a free life. So that as Free Men we could choose to be charitable as well. They died so we could get up every day look in the mirror and see ourselves in all our fallen glory and yet choose to do the right thing. Choose to be a Man today and choose to fight for the next generation, choose to put on Charity.
Admin: Do just that. I’ll send it, even if I normally wouldn’t. Also thanks for the summary of the suicide.
A powerful piece. It flies in the face of the “whoever dies with the most toys” bullshit that many Libertarian-oriented folks have.
Depression is natural. Tough shit. What does the uneasiness any thinking artist expresses point to? Darkness and hopelessness or the ideal qualities that the peculiar, sentient Animal called Humanity so concocts from the ability to transcend?
Really, a brilliant work.
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One of my neighbors. Quiet, no trouble… his guests get rowdy every now and again but they’re good folks.
Great work. One of my favorite books. A hard-back copy was given to me when I was young by our neighbors, who had survived the Nazi holocaust.
Hemingway’s stuff is good and timeless because it addresses good versus evil. The constant struggle of good versus evil. The never ending battle. Most people can’t or won’t rise above their human nature, which is animalistic, cruel, sinful, ugly and tragic.
There is so much ugliness and evil in the world it’s mind boggling. It seems insurmountable, and it is by human means. But there is something else at work, thank you GOD. We all play our part, not knowing what the ultimate purpose is going to be, but there is a purpose, and that is enough.
Hemingway was no angel. He was a terrible womanizer and a drunk. Self-medication for depression? I suppose so. Many of the great artists had depression problems. Some depression is anger turned inwards. Who can help but get angry at what is happening all the time? It doesn’t matter which era it is, there are always lesser, evil men trying to impose their will on everyone. If you’re angry all the time, you will then be depressed also.
It is only when more people decide that good is better than evil that things change. Most of the time evil wins out. Then evil has to run it’s course and be defeated, once again.
As so eloquently stated in your writing, it is how we comport ourselves that matters in the end. We can take nothing with us when we die except what we have learned on earth and the good we have done. Therefore, earthly possessions don’t really matter in the end. It’s not having the fish that matters, it’s what catching the fish taught us that matters. We have free will, and can decide to be ugly, evil and useless, or the contrary. It’s not very hard to figure out on which side of the equation most people line up. Anyway, well done.
NEO-CON SHARKS OUT TO GET RON PAUL
Interventionists Ready a Media Lynching for Ron Paul
by Michael Scheuer
The past ten days have seen a spate of pieces on Google News damning Congressman Ron Paul for “blaming” America for the 9/11 attacks. This is just the start of what will become a wave of ever-more shrill and lie-filled attacks on Mr. Paul as long as he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination and continues to find growing public support. The attacks on Mr. Paul are and will be the work of the Neoconservatives, the Israel-First fifth column of U.S. citizens, and AIPAC and those it controls in the Congress, media, and academy.
Mr. Paul, of course, never blamed the United States for the war the Islamists started and are now waging on the United States. What he did say is merely what is true beyond any credible challenge: Our growing number of Islamist enemies are motivated to attack us because of what the U.S. government does in the Muslim world and not because of how Americans live and think here at home. Mr. Paul bravely and clearly delivers this essential message to U.S. voters, and as long as he tells this truth he will receive the venom and slander of the above mentioned people and organizations.
And worse is yet to come. On 1 and 2 September 2011, Commentary Magazine – long Israel-First’s flagship publication – identified Mr. Paul’s truth-telling in regard to the impact of U.S. foreign policy in the Islamic world as a “bizarre and twisted interpretation of events” and described him and his supporters as taking Osama bin Laden’s statements as their bible. Commentary went on to damn Mr. Paul and his supporters as follows:
“[Congressman] Paul seems intent on blaming America for the burning [Islamist] hatred directed against us, to the point that he has to disfigure history to justify it. It’s a peculiar citizen who would do such a thing. I suppose I understand why most Republicans (with the fine exception of Rick Santorum) have not taken on the noxious ideology of Representative Paul. But the dirty little secret is Ron Paul holds views that are disgraceful. It seems to me that conservatives, in the name of reaching out to those who inhabit the loony fringes of the libertarian movement, shouldn’t pretend otherwise.”
If this sounds familiar it is because it is precisely the kind of attack that was used against the America First organization when it sought to prevent America from entering the European War that began in September, 1939. Interventionists in both parties; much of the media; senior members of the Roosevelt Administration; leaders of Britain’s pro-intervention covert action program in the United States; and spokesmen for Jewish-American organizations all slandered America First members as disloyal citizens who were ignorant of the world. Together these entities misidentified distinguished Americans who were using 1st Amendment rights to defend what they saw as U.S. interests as traitors, madmen, Nazi sympathizers, and anti-Semites. In their words this week, the articles in Commentary and elsewhere have identified Dr. Paul and the millions who agree with him as “peculiar” citizens (traitors?); madmen (“loony fringes”); and bin Laden sympathizers.
If Mr. Paul continues telling the truth and his support keeps growing, Israel-First’s next step will be to begin smearing him as an anti-Semite, just as Charles Lindbergh and other America First leaders were falsely identified in the late 1930s by the sorts of people noted above. And such attacks on Mr. Paul probably will be more vicious than those on Lindbergh, et al. Some of those who opposed America First, for example, conducted a sharp but fair-minded debate over a clearly substantive and legitimate question: “Does Nazi Germany pose a threat to genuine U.S. national interests?”
Today, however, Mr. Paul’s attackers know they have no legitimate, defensible issue on their side of the debate, only their malevolent desire to see America fight all of Islam on Israel‘s behalf. Indeed, they know the United States and its interests are in large measure threatened and attacked by Islamists because of the U.S. government’s relentless and unquestioning intervention on Israel’s behalf. Thus, the combination of the fact that Mr. Paul’s words are gaining traction with some Americans, and that the Israel-First position is built on sand – that is, it is clear no U.S. interest is served by the current U.S.-Israel relationship – means that Mr. Paul’s attackers use any and every kind of slander to defame him and to ensure the United States will fight to protect Israel against the rising and uncontrollable tide of anti-Israel sentiment that is being produced by the so-called Arab Spring.
In this vein, Commentary’s description of Mr. Paul’s “noxious ideology” is a first step that probably will lead to a systematic Israel-First effort to identify Mr. Paul and those who support him as anti-Semites simply because they do not want to see America’s soldier-children die fighting in an irrelevant Israel-Muslim religious war in which no genuine U.S. interests are at risk.
I watched this novel made into a movie in a cinema, starring Spencer Tracy, when I was a mere young teen.
It burned a psyche so deep into my innocent being that it, sub-conscientiously, formed a foundation of my adult life. It made me grow up beyond me age at that time.
Note to Gen X and Gen Y: Learn from the folks who survive the Depression, and won the War, such as Tracy. Only then will you either survive the outcome of the Fourth Turning.
Great post – well written and intensely true!
“Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.”
Edmund Burke
A super article… loved it.
The concept of “grace under pressure” is 100% confirmation of the spritual nature of our existance. Once you realize that we are “here on Earth” for a purpose, then the person who exibits “grace under pressure” is simply not worried if they will survive or perish, they are performing their calling, with passion. It is so simple, and explains everything.
Remember, we are “in this world, but not “of” it”. We are in spiritual entities having an occasional existence in the material plane, and we are not physical entities having an occasional spiritual experience (Edgar Cayce, Deepak Chopra, The Bible).
Wonderful article, thank you very much.
This piece made my morning, and I will enjoy revisiting it during the coming days. Keep up the exceptionally good work. Often you are the one reasoned voice I can rely on in this mass media wilderness.
I like Ron Paul but his campaign is ran so horribly,i wonder if he can win.
Admin.,
I didn’t receive this until later today? It was absolutely one of your best Jim. Intergrating “Old Man and the Sea” and Ron Paul was a delightful thoughtful article. I read the book and saw the movie when I was young. Spencer Tracy was very special in that movie.
Awesome article Jim.
I think it’s why Ron is so well loved.Like a big brother who was fighting for you before you realised you were in a fight.Fighting all the power of a corrupt government alone for endless years just because it is right.
What a beautiful article. Thanks so much. I’ve just been watching hundreds of young people marching on Wall Street, seen the police lines forming.> http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution>
Are these kids naive? I think not, and if so, who cares? They’re not at the frat house drinking beer. They are earnestly trying to change things, struggling to find an equitable process by which to create a movement. They know just how bad things are getting and they know who to blame. That’s a good start. If enough of them came to understand Ron Paul…well who knows what could happen? Frankly I am moved by their efforts. And by this article. Nice to see classic literature put to good use
Hemingway was an expat because he saw the same things we do, but much earlier:
In the winter of 1933-34, Ernest Hemingway and his wife went on a two month safari to East Africa. Afterward he wrote, “Green Hills of Africa”. Here are some excerpts.
“Sure, you couldn’t make a living. Everyone had explained that. The locusts came and ate your crops and the monsoon failed, and the rains did not come, and everything dried up and died. There were ticks and fly to kill the stock, and mosquitoes gave you fever and maybe you got blackwater. Your cattle would die and you would get no price for your coffee. A white hunter worked for three months out of the year and drank for twelve and the Government was ruining the country for the benefit of the Hindu and the natives. That was what they told you. Sure. But I did not want to make money. All I wanted was to live in it and have time to hunt. Already I have had one of the diseases and had experienced the necessity of washing a three-inch bit of my large intestine with soap and water and tucking it back where it belonged an unnumbered amount of times a day. There were remedies which cured this and it was well worth going through for what I had seen and where I had been. I loved this country and I felt at home and where a man feels at home, outside of where he’s born, is where he’s meant to go. Then, in my grandfather’s time, Michigan was a malaria ridden state. They called it fever and ague. And in Tortugas, where I’d spent months, a thousand men once died of yellow fever. New continents and islands try to frighten you with disease as a snake hisses. The snake may be poisonous, too. You kill them off. Hell, what I had a month ago would have killed me in the old days before they invented the remedies. Maybe it would and maybe I would have gotten well.
IT IS EASIER TO KEEP WELL IN A GOOD COUNTRY BY TAKING SIMPLE PRECAUTIONS THAN TO PRETEND THAT A COUNTRY THAT IS FINISHED IS STILL GOOD.
A continent ages quickly once we come. The natives live in harmony with it. But the foreigner destroys it, cuts down the trees, drains the water, so that the water supply is altered and in short time the soil, once the sod is turned under, is cropped out and, next, it starts to blow away as it has blown away in every old country and as I had seen it start to blow in Canada.
I would come back to Africa but not to make a living from it. I could do that with two pencils and a few hundred sheets of the cheapest paper. But I would come back to where it pleased me to live; to really live. Not just let my life pass. Our people went to America because it was the place to go then. It had been a good country and we had made a bloody mess of it and I would go, now, somewhere else as we had always had the right to go somewhere else and as we had always gone. You could always come back. Let others come to America who did not know that they had come too late. Our people had seen it at its best and fought for it when it was well worth fighting for. Now I would go somewhere else. We always went in the old days and there were still good places to go.”
Ernest Hemingway, 1934
I hear so often “I agree with almost everything Ron Paul says, but he can’t win.” THAT’S ONLY BECAUSE YOU, YES, I’M TALKING TO YOU, WON’T VOTE FOR HIM!!! What do you say we actually elect someone with integrity and a consistent message (which, by the way, matches his voting record exactly) and who will abide by the Constitution he has sworn to defend. Ron Paul in 2012!!
Gitano:
Good shit. Thank you.
Now go and cry in your pillow because there is no frontier.
Awesome read!! Thanks!
Really, I’m not JUST being an ass… there reallly isn’t a frontier these days.
Tough shit.
All of you folks scraming that Paul can win remind me of Chicago Cubs fans – screaming blue murder that they indeed can win the World Series this year, yadda yadda. yadda, and mother fucking anyone who says different.
I am not motherfucking Ron Paul – I like him, for the most part – but he has no chance in hell of being elected. All the scraming and wanting it too happen won’t make one fucking bit of difference. First, the free shit army is against him. Second, he has the charisma of a fucking dung beetle. Third, the Republicans fear him even more than the Dems do. Forth, his age works against him. Fifth, he needs a whole lot more donations. Sixth, he has virtually no public speaking skills compared to the other challengers. Seventh, he comes across poorly on TV. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Wise up and quit dreaming. Reality can suck – as it does this time.
Llpoh:
Fuck it, just check the box by his name.
It’s not like it’s that big a deal.
Colma – “just being” an ass? That implies that there are times when you are not an ass. Not so, grasshopper. You properly should have said – “I am an ass”. But on you it looks good. Just try not to bite off more than you can chew:
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Colma – 1) he will not get the GOP nomination. 2) he will never win as an independent. I doubt there will be a box to check – write in is most likely possibility of him recieving votes. And i will not waste my time voting if it is a race between dumbfuck number 1 and dumbfuck number 2.
LLPOH evidently didn’t read the article for comprehension.
Did your Chinese competitor win a contract from you today?
I strive to be a complete ass.
Better than half-ass, dammit.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/ron-paul-can-win
Another good article in support of Ron Paul.
Awesome, awsome article.
Fantastic comments. So much so I have nothing to add, except …
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Top 10 statements that make me want to puke!
1) Ron Paul can’t win.
2 through 10) Ron Paul can’t win.
For clarification, LLPOH did not reference the article.
He referenced the stream of comments that followed it.
Stuchenburger:
You better like this article, shitbag.
And you better move up to a LOT of pushups.
Better if you do burpies!
Hemmingway invokes questions that are better asked than glossed over.
Here in Texas I have voted Democratic all my life, but this year… for the first time in my life, I will vote in the Republican primary so that I can count myself as one of the people who have voted for Ron Paul.